The order of difference and what lies on the margins of both nature and culture are what have motivated me the most since I began my Ph. D dissertation at the University of Cambridge (HPS) in 1995 entitled The Singular and the Making of Knowledge at the Royal Society of London in the Eighteenth Century, now published as a book. In my work as an historian, I have privileged interdisciplinary approaches and cultural history. My main research has focused on the history of medicine and natural history in the early modern period. However, my natural curiosity and enthusiastic embrace of challenges has moved me at times into new territories such as science and art and science and ethics. Within academic life, teaching is probably my greatest duty and passion.

Research interests: History of Medicine and Natural History in Portugal and the Portuguese Empire (16th and 18th centuries); History of the Medical Book; Visual Representations of Nature; Monsters and other Singularities of Nature. She is currently writing a book on the History of Tears.

Palmira Fontes da Costa is Assistant Professor in Historiography, History of Science and Bioethics at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT). She is a member of CIUHCT and an associated member of CHAM.